Poland launches app to promote monuments

Poland’s National Institute for Monument Conservation (NIKZ) has launched a new app to encourage and help people visit the country’s monuments, including offering ready-made sightseeing tour plans based on a variety of interests and themes.

The new service, MonumentApp, is powered by Google Maps and can suggest sights in the user’s immediate vicinity. It is also interactive, allowing users to add their own descriptions and photos of monuments, as well as to create their own maps and trip templates.

Among the itineraries already offered by the app are tours relating to historical events (such as one on the Warsaw Uprising), cultural figures and TV shows. Categories of monuments to browse include those relating to Polish literature, Jewish heritage, and UNESCO heritage sites.

Each tour plan is accompanied by practical information on duration and ticket costs as well as a historical overview of the visited places. Among the individuals described in the app are key figures in Polish history and culture, such as Fryderyk Chopin, Józef Piłsudski, Pope John Paul II and Nicolaus Copernicus.

“MonumentApp will not only provide information about specific monuments, but will also have a community function – recipients will be able to contribute to descriptions of monuments, send hand-crafted photos of sites and objects, and share their discoveries with family and friends,” says NIKZ.

The app, which can be downloaded for free from Google Play and the App Store, is currently only available in a Polish language version. Its launch is part of a campaign by NIKZ – a body created last year by the culture ministry – to promote Polish national heritage.

As part of those efforts, the institute has also launched a website. Spotkania z Zabytkami (Meetings with Monuments), that is intended to complement the app with broader descriptions of the monuments as well as interviews and analyses.

NIKZ has also relaunched a quarterly magazine of the same name that has, for the past 45 years, been published as an industry outlet but has now been remade into a “modern lifestyle magazine with cross-cultural and historical content”, says the institute. The magazine is available in print and online from this month.

“This app, website and magazine will together be a source of inspiration for tourists and enthusiasts of monuments and history to enable them to get to know Poland in an accessible way,” said Andrzej Gut-Mostowy, deputy sport and tourism minister. “It is a functional compendium of knowledge presented in an innovative way.”

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Spotkania z Zabytkami / Facebook

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.